The murder of a domestic violence victim in front of 300 people was precipitated by a "cascade" of police inaction and omissions, the South Australian coroner has been told.

Police never charged Zialloh Abrahimzadeh with assault, or even spoke to him, during the 13 months that his wife and children complained to police of his abuse up to the time of her murder, counsel assisting Naomi Kereru said on Monday.

Kereru was opening the inquest into the death of Zahra Abrahimzadeh, 44, who was fatally stabbed by her estranged husband at a Persian function at the Adelaide Convention Centre in March 2010.

He is serving a minimum of 26 years in jail for the murder.

Kereru said Abrahimzadeh fled the family home with her three children in February 2009 and shortly after filed complaints with police.

Against a background of domestic violence, she and her eldest daughter reported being assaulted by Zialloh Abrahimzadeh and being subjected to threats that he would "burn down the house with the family inside".

Kereru then listed a "cascade" of failures and omissions that the family encountered "at almost every point of contact with the police".

She said a domestic violence worker also reported that Abrahimzadeh was "petrified of being killed" after her brother-in-law was seen in a car across the road from the safe house where she and the children were living.